thank you, charlotte. let's play "hardball." good evening. i'm chris matthews back in washington. let me start tonight with this impressive week in charlotte. there may be no one explanation for it, but i've never seen such excitement in a political convention. it was in the faces of the people who stood at the edge of our msnbc stage, their loud roars when one of us said something about president obama, their deep concentration watching him on our big screen as he spoke last night. i don't know what this means for november. we're going to get serious economic reports between now and then and we'll know when we vote if the economy's either slowing down or beginning to perk. the news we got this morning wasn't satisfactory by anyone's standards. but the real question is how the

voters look at this election. will they view it as a choice between two candidates or as an up or down referendum on president obama. a brutally tough standard by the way so soon after the financial crash of 2008 and '09. m steve steven mm orsa is here and steven mens is a democratic strategist. president obama last night kept pushing the idea that this election is a choice among voters rather than a referendum. we counted 20 times he uttered a variation of choose or choice, the very words themselves. take a look. >> when all is said and done, when you pick up that ballot to vote, you will face the clearest choice of any time in a generation. it will be a choice between two different paths for america. i'm asking you to choose that future and now, you have a choice. if you choose this path. the choice you face -- you can choose a future -- choose -- choice -- choice -- choice -- choices -- choose -- choose.

choose, choose, choose. you can choose that future for america. >> well, that's pretty tough stuff. steve moore, i guess you have a point of view on this. i want to ask you this fundamental question. is this going to be like a baseball team where the manager said that pitcher started the game, but he's got to get out of there, we've got to try somebody else. or are you going to have two people sort of facing off saying, well, pick me, and the other one says pick me, and you've got to choose between them? >> i think it's a smart strategy by barack obama, especially given the employment report that came out today that was disappointing, but i have a kind of iron rule of politics. and i've been in politics for a long time as you have chris. that iron rule of politics is that elections are almost always, almost always referendum on the performance the incumbent. and that's the problem that barack obama has. is that a lot of americans have concluded this economy isn't growing. when he says the line this week among many democrats, including bill clinton, was this was the

best any president could have done. wait a minute. it was barack obama himself who said we were going to have the unemployment rate down below 6% now and that within three or four years, if i haven't fixed the economy, i won't have a second term. i'm judging him by his own standards here. >> today, the unemployment rate did tick down to 8.1 from 8.3 that's good news, at least superficially. but that's because 96,000 jobs were added and many unemployed americans have stopped looking for work. this is a tough situation. i read the paper today, the wires, steve mcmahon, and this is the smallest labor force, that means people working or looking for a job, in 30 years. we have shrunk the working portion of our country because of, well, disappointment in the job market. what's out there? >> there's no question the job report was not what the president and the white house wanted. there are three numbers they focus on. the first is the raw number, which was lower than folks expected. lower than the white house wanted. there's the unemployment rate which did tick down a little bit. and there was another measure that people look at, the 401(k)s.

the republicans want to talk about whether you're better off today than you were four years ago. by the measure of a 401(k), somebody who is about to retire is looking at that saying you know what? the president inherited a terrible situation. my 401(k) has nearly doubled in the last four years. he said in his speech things had gone more slowly and been more difficult than he imagined. he showed humility and i thought he did a wonderful job of contextualizing it last night. and saying this isn't really a choice between mitt romney and barack obama, it's a choice between what kind of future we want to have as a country. what kind of economy we want to have. whether it's an economy that works for everybody or just the few and privileged and wealthy like mitt romney. i thought it was very effective. >> what about that? the idea and let's look at this objectively, you're not just playing this back and forth. if you have a president come in and the dow jones is down about 65, it's dropped dramatically, lower than it was for a decade and all of a sudden, it doubles doubles up to 13,000. that means people have 401(k) money.

they've got any kind of savings in the equity markets. they're better off dramatically. in fact, twice as well off as they were and this is somebody 65 years old, ready to retire, 72 years old, checking the market every day to see how they're doing. i have to tell you, this sounds like sarcasm, but if george w. had this kind of situation he'd be doing those hot dog jumping up and down in the end zone and he wouldn't quit. >> i agree with both you and steve. i think this is the best statistic that barack obama has. the stock market actually has done pretty well under barack obama, so you're both right about that. the problem that i think -- >> how does wealth affect retirement? is wealth more important to retirement or the unemployment number? if you retire, those people -- >> clearly, it's the wealth. effect, in you look at the income statistics that came out last week, that were pretty lousy, the only age group that saw an increase in their income was senior citizens because they're not in the workforce but they do make their income mostly from benefits of government and also from -- but here's the problem with you guys' analysis,

though. it is true that there's a wealth effect in terms of higher stock market values. the housing market hasn't done much at all, but the bigger problem is when you look at the wage issue, steve. and that's where i think obama has a steep climb. wages are down 4,000 for the average family. those are the people -- >> mr. moore, you're piling on. here's president obama speaking about the jobs numbers in new hampshire. he argued there's more work to be done, of course. let's listen to his reaction and then we'll get back to you, steve. >> today, we learned that after losing around 800,000 jobs a month when i took office, business once again added jobs for the 30th month in a row. a total of more than 4.6 million jobs. but that's not good enough. we know it's not good enough. we need to create more jobs faster. we need to fill the hole left by this recession faster. we need to come out of this crisis stronger than when we

went in and there's a lot more that we can do. >> listening to you steve, i think you say the worst sin of the president is not that he hasn't got the economy coming back like gangbusters, but that he promised too much. the numbers he was using. i'll get it down to 6% in three years. i'll get it down to 8% in the first year. is he -- would any other president have been able to do -- bill clinton doesn't think so. be able to take this out of where it was, on the edge of a precipi precipice, bring it back from the precipice, prevent a second depression and get people back to working again after this kind of financial crash we had in '08-'09? was anybody able to do better in three years? >> reagan did. >> no, he didn't have a financial crisis. >> sure he did. >> you are playing games now. that was a monetary recession caused by volcker. it was a systematic tightening of money that could easily be overturned. that was a vertical. that went down and quickly back up again. >> no. i disagree with you on that. the 1970s was the worst decade

that we had since the great depression in terms of incomes and wealth. the stock market was -- it's value. but here's the point. reagan came in during a great economic crisis. read what people were saying in 1980. everyone thought we were on a decline, we would never recover. that the soviet union was going to overtake us. the thing is that three years later after reagan put his program in place the economy was booming. >> thank you steve. please come back, mr. moore. you're a good salesman. you got a good hand today. you got three eights in your hand this morning. coming up, conventional wisdom. which party had the better convention? the voting on this question is in and it's not a toss-up. it's the democrats. and this is a fact. i was with both of them. also how the gop managed to fumble away their biggest advantage, the military, the troops. the republicans didn't mention the people -- they didn't mention the war in afghanistan and democrats ran right up into that gaping hole and reminded people democrats are interested in the people fighting these wars. not just the wars.

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welcome back to "hardball." there were so many differences between the two conventions we just saw. one of the starkest was in the levels of enthusiasm. loud and boisterous down in charlotte. grim and rather businesslike in tampa. i could feel wherever i went. the first hint of trouble in tampa came when chris christie who delivered the rnc keynote told delegates they weren't being loud enough. let's listen to him. >> i want to tell you something. i've been a little bit disappointed at the volume of noise on the floor of that convention. the last two nights. i've got to be honest with you. i've been a little disappointed in it. >> wow. the enthusiasm level was one of the many contrasts between the conventions. we'll take you through the others.

another convention contrast was the role each party gave to past presidents. bill clinton owned wednesday night up in charlotte and made the strongest case yet for obama's second term. let's listen to big bill, the big dog. >> if you want a winner-take-all, you're on your own society, you should support the republican ticket. but if you want a country of shared opportunity and shared responsibility, we are all in this together society, you should vote for barack obama and joe biden. >> he was fantastic. president george w. bush was not present at the republican convention and was barely mentioned by anyone at the convention except briefly from his brother jeb who said it is time to cut him a break. let's listen to jeb on w. >> and my brother, well, i love my brother.

he is a man of integrity, courage, and honor. and during incredibly challenging times, he kept us safe. so mr. president, it is time to stop blaming your predecessor for your failed economic policies. >> well, i always like to remind people that he didn't keep us safe. september 11th, 2001. >> there was that one time. >> it was after that he kept us safe. if a democrat had been president when we were hit on 9/11, the republican party would have had participating of such villainizing of the democrats it never would have anded. let's go to the broader question of how they treated the most recent chief executive. not much love for w., pure love for bill. >> i think they decided down in tampa that for every minute that george w. bush was mentioned let alone seen, they were going to drop that percentage in the

polls. i mean, as you mentioned earlier, americans understand by and large, 60% of them, that barack obama inherited a serious set of problems from george w. bush. two wars that have cost up upwards of $2 trillion, $3 trillion, an economy that crashed and a gigantic debt that he had doubled while in office. >> it seems both parties want to remind us of that, but neither party wants to remind us of w. the democrats have given w. a break as a person, they only go after his record. your thoughts? >> well, my former boss, george w. bush has exited the political stage. he said once i'm out of politics, that's it. the democrats can run around and say, oh, they are trying to hide bush and stay off the scene because he's so unpopular, but that was the president's decision. the fact of the matter, chris, is that poor barack obama, oh

obama inherited a mess, oh obama, all the troubles he's had, this man has been in office for three-and-a-half years. i'm tired of listening to the whining from the left and saying poor obama as opposed to he's had a stimulus bill, he's had a jobs bill, they haven't set the country back on course. so let's put the blame where it needs to be at the president's feet for his failed policies as opposed to looking back and blaming george w. bush. >> let's look at this. the republicans and democrats had limited and precious prime-time, of course on broadcast networks. on the final night of both conventions just as the members gone their coverage, here's what the parties presented. at 10:02 vice president joe biden was in a full lather. he often is. let's listen. >> america is not in decline. i've got news for governor romney, and congressman ryan, gentlemen, never, ever, it never makes sense, it's never been a

good bet to get against the american people. >> anyway, meanwhile the week before, here's what republicans were presenting to network audiences at 10:04 on their big night. let's listen. >> i've got mr. obama sitting here. what? what do you want me to tell romney? i can't tell him to do that. can't do that to himself. you're crazy. you're absolutely crazy. >> you know, ron, i've always given credit to your party for competence in putting these shows on. you always have the balloon drop where the balloons actually do drop on time. you're really good at this stuff. but this year when you only had an hour of prime-time tv on the networks, nbc, cbs and abc you put on clint eastwood. the other guys put on the up up man for the president, joe

biden. who's organizing your conventions these days? i think you lost some of your luster in this business. >> well, chris, i know it's going to make a lot of our republican friends a little unhappy with me but i thought it was a little strange seeing clint eastwood, a guy who i love, talking to an empty chair. i get the point, but for goodness sakes, the one hour that you have the american people tuning in that aren't on the cable networks and are looking at an empty chair? i just didn't see the humor in it. a lot of people did. i just wouldn't have chosen that line of frankly attack against the president. >> you know, joe, he apparently thought up this gig, this shtick or whatever you want to call it, when he was in the green room. he just thought of it. that's a lot of power to just say, can i have that chair, please? >> i think even though obama seems to have gotten the big bounce today in the gallup approval, you can bet that romney is way up with people who yell at empty chairs. i would say that's a demographic that they capture.

>> you are cruel to our hero. i'm going to forgive my saying something later. this is probably the man's career going on hunches. this hunch didn't work. let's talk about the crowd out there. this is always a ticklish point. but i was down in charlotte and there was a tremendous good feeling. you know that phrase you always here new south. it's better than it was. the race relations are much more mellow. i mean, i have -- i know it's tough to talk about it but i was so impressed by the way all the people got along down there. in an open space with people, the excitement, they're shoulder to shoulder, feeling. it was so -- here we have the convention. these of course, were the delegates, not just the regular people. we had regular citizens, of course. but these delegates, just a lot of positive feeling here and diversity in the best sense. it was wonderful because they wanted to be diverse. your thoughts, ron. is that something the republican party just isn't over yet and has to get over at some point or what? >> well, i think one thing, it's a matter of ideology. if you look at the fact that 96%

of registered african-american voters who voted for president obama last time around, that's a pretty high percentage. i didn't see the kind of diversity i wanted to see in tampa. obviously there were a number of folks of color i saw at the convention, but we need to do better as a party. we need to go out not just at election time. but we need to recruit folks to run for office. we need to ask for the vote before election time. hopefully four years from now we'll have a more robust and more diverse republican party. >> thank you, sir. ron, thank you for coming on. thank you, joe, for being tough but fair. coming up, there was one word joe biden literally loved saying last night. what was it? literally it was the word. he loves saying the word literally. this is "hardball," the place for politics. [ male announcer ] wouldn't it be cool if we took the nissan altima and reimagined nearly everything in it? gave it greater horsepower and best in class 38 mpg highway... ...advanced headlights... ...and zero gravity seats? yeah, that would be cool.

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bill clinton threw out more specific numbers in one speech

last night than the republicans leadership did in an entire week in tampa. >> a reasonable plan of $4 trillion of debt reduction in a decade. for every $2.5 trillion of cuts. he raises a dollar in new revenue. >> not that the republicans did not have a plan to solve the nation's economic problems. >> we are going to solve this nation's economic problems. we need to stop spending money we don't have. we will not duck the tough issues, we will lead. >> and as a last resort, we will use magic. >> back to "hardball." speaking of president clinton's convention speech you may have caught this snapshot of hillary clinton watching her husband make his address. she was on a diplomatic trip in southeast asia. before watching, the secretary of state had this to say about her husband's remarks. quote, i received the as-prepared version which i am anxious when i can to compare with the as-delivered version. well, she suspected some on the spot addition to the speech like this zinger for paul ryan who

blasted president obama's medicare spending cuts, even though ryan's own plan called for the same in savings. >> it takes some brass to attack a guy for doing what you didn't. >> and that was impromptu. let's get down to the numbers, bill clinton's prepared remarks, just over 3,000 words. the as-delivered version, close to 6,000. just a bit more ad-libbing and he'd have doubled the original word count. that guy is smart. moving on to one of last night's big speech events, did you happen to notice joe biden getting a bit literal with the use of one word in particular? >> governor romney believes it's okay to raise taxes on middle class by $2,000 in order to pay for another -- literally another trillion dollar tax cut for the very wealthy. and it literally amazes me they don't understand. general motors and chrysler were literally on the verge of liquidation. literally the first days -- literally stood on the brink -- literally hung in the balance -- literally -- literally -- the

direction we turn is not figuratively, it is literally in your hands. >> well, the direction of history is literally in our hands? hmm. biden dropped that "l" word ten times. anyway the obama campaign pounced on that one when twitter users searched the word literally, and took a look at what popped up. a promotional message from the obama campaign. osama bin laden is dead, and general motors is alive. one of biden's signature lines in the campaign show. they're moving fast. and even though this past week in charlotte has been chock-full of memorable moments, i doubt anyone has forgotten about the most bizarre moment from last week's convention down in tampa. of course it's clint eastwood talking to an empty chair. and before singing some of his recognizable songs at this democratic convention, yesterday singer/songwriter james taylor addressed any concerns about his own four-legged prop. >> i know it's an empty chair, it makes you nervous, doesn't it? that's all right.

i'm going to sit on it. not going to talk to it. >> what a voice. that's "hardball" for now. coming up next, "your business" with j.j. ramberg. you'll also find us in person, with dedicated support teams at over 500 branches nationwide. so when you call or visit, you can ask for a name you know. because personal service starts with a real person. [ rodger ] at scottrade, seven dollar trades are just the start. our support teams are nearby, ready to help. it's no wonder so many investors are saying... [ all ] i'm with scottrade.